The present invention concerns a greatly simplified mechanism for remote control of the volume of a television set. Although remote control channel selectors incorporating volume control are known, not all television sets are adaptable to be controlled by such devices, and where provision has been made for such control, the cost is considerable. The present invention does not seek to control all selection capabilities, but rather to make it possible for the volume of any television set, regardless of the individual design features thereof, to be regulated remotely with the expenditure of a very small sum. The use of such a device shall be primarily to lower or make inaudible the audio portion of spot commercials. It will be understood that there is a great need for an inexpensive reliable device of this type since typically four or five sequentially programmed commercials are inserted at ten-minute intervals in some of the more popular television shows. Moreover, invariably the loudness of the audio portion of such commercials is increased beyond the setting which the viewer has selected for the program itself.
Heretofore, there have been a number of devices suggested in the patent literature for remote regulation of the various controls or selector means of radio or television sets. Invariably, such mechanisms are complicated and often require particular adaptation to the design of a television or radio receiver. Early examples of such remote controls for radio may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,925,991; 1,980,172; 2,036,948; 2,149,754. More recent controls adapted for the television are illustrated and disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,934,963 and 3,984,779.
Whereas, some of these prior attempts are interesting, the controls provided for radio have been generally strictly mechanical, which is to say, are limited with respect to the distance from which control may be effected; whereas, the more recent television controls require special adaptation to particular television designs, are complex and therefore expensive.
The control device of the present invention obviates many of the difficulties of prior mechanisms. The essential aspect of the invention is use of an unshielded (therefore unanchored) flexible metal shaft, driven by a very inexpensive and conventional (DC battery operated or AC) motor with an accompanying reduction gear train. The motor is energized remotely by a simple hand-held switch (forward or reverse), which may be part of a simple flash light battery type casing. The aforementioned flexible shaft is made readily and universally adaptable to be connected to the shaft of a television set. Consequently, the housing containing the motor operated gear train can be placed and attached to the side or top of a television set adjacent to the volume control wherever that may be situated in a particular design, thus permitting the flexible shaft to extend from the housing to the volume control shaft. Since the flexible shaft is unshielded, this provides great freedom for such placement since the unshielded flexible cable does not require anchoring to the set at its free end.